After a long, mouth-watering wait, the first set of of new practice material from GMAC became available this week. We got our sweaty, eager hands on some copies of the Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th Edition as soon as possible so we could get information out to people. If you’re looking to get your hands on a copy, you can find them in our bookstore.

Here’s a quick recap of what you can expect when you get one of your very own:

Integrated Reasoning Chapter – The integrated reasoning chapter includes descriptions of the question types and strategies, explantions of the question directions, and, of course, a limited number of example questions. Don’t expect too much here, as the whole chapter is about 12 pages long.

Integrated Reasoning Online Practice Questions – Probably the most relevant new addition to OG 13, the book comes with an online access code attached to the inside back cover that will allow you to do practice Integrated Reasoning questions in a fashion and format similar to how they appear on the Official GMAT (see picture below). The access code provides a set of 50 IR practice questions.

“Exam” NOT “Test” – Apparently GMAC wants to emphasize that the GMAT is an exam and not a test. In the table of contents all references to the “GMAT Test” have been replaced with the “GMAT Exam.” Not sure what the point of that is, but we figured you wanted to know everything.

Hideous Cover – As you can see, they went with a rather unsightly shade of aquamarine. I’m no fashionista, but the maroon coloration of the last edition was a lot easier on the eyes. Thankfully, there’s a lot more to like about this version of the OG.

Admonishments Not to Cheat – As if you didn’t already know, GMAC figured they should tell you in no uncertain terms that cheating is bad, and that you definitely shouldn’t do it. Don’t do. No, seriously. Don’t do it.

Sorry, the access code is on the back. You can order one in our bookstore!

Caution: Don't Cheat. (Go Blue!)

Here’s what you won’t find in OG 13: Any more practice questions than in OG 12. While the cover of the book advertises “more than 900 questions from past GMAT exams,” while OG 12 advertises more than 800, there are exactly the same number of questions in each of the five sets of practice questions (Problem Solving, Data Sufficiency, Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, and Sentence Correction) as there were in OG 12.

We’re still trying to figure out where exactly these additional 100 or so GMAT questions from past exams are in the book. We know there are 50 practice IR questions online, but even if we count those, where are rest supposed to be?

We’re also curious about how many (and which) of the current practice questions they’ve updated. We’ll go through every single question in the next few days to confirm whether it’s new or not, and have a detailed breakdown and comparison to OG 12 next week.

As it currently stands, it doesn’t seem like there’s much new here in OG13. The IR should be helpful to prepare for that section, but otherwise the Official Guide remains largely unchanged. If you’d like to get a copy and get started with your IR prep, check out our bookstore. Not even mba.com has it yet!

We’ll be back with a whole lot more on the IR in the coming days. Keep your eyes peeled!